The Hooters restaurant chain said yesterday it was pulling its full-page ad from the Final Four program because the NCAA would not approve the ad if it featured a Hooters waitress.

The ad shows hoops commentator Dick Vitale and Sara Hoots, a waitress at a Hooters in Selma, Texas, near San Antonio, site of the Final Four.

“That (the NCAA objecting) would be like telling General Motors you can advertise but don't show a picture of a car,” said Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing for Hooters of America. “Sara is a beautiful, intelligent and hard-working employee, and we would never consider removing her image from the ad.”

Like Vitale, Hooters is involved with the V Foundation for Cancer Research, named for the late coach Jim Valvano.

TRIVIA TIME

UCLA and Ohio State, which won the NIT title this week, made up half of last year's NCAA Final Four. Champion Florida was one of the other two teams. Name the fourth.

BIRD ATTACK UPDATE

You can't make this stuff up:

Turns out the 13-year-old girl who was attacked and injured slightly by a red-tail hawk at Fenway Park on Thursday while on a school tour is named Alexa Rodriguez.